The 82,000-square-foot building is scheduled to be completed in late 2012. Citing security concerns, a company spokesperson declined to divulge its location.

Bell says the new building will be a tier-3 facility, meaning it has utility backups as well as less downtime and greater security than a simple server room or data centre, according to industry background documents.

It will employ 10 people once completed.

Bell says there is a local need for this type of facility.

"The National Capital area market, with its unique mix of high tech giants and government departments, has been struggling to keep up with the demand for high-end, secure data centre space," said Stéphane Boisvert, president of Bell Business Markets, in a statement.

The company has five other Canadian data centres offering its clients co-location, managed hosting and next-generation cloud computing services, such as software as a service and hosted unified communications.

The new Ottawa facility is designed to meet a LEED-Gold standard for energy efficiency and environmental design. Bell says it will be in the top two per cent of data centres for the most effective use of electricity in North America.

It will be powered by a grid separate from most Ottawa electricity users and secured with biometric access control.